You get feedback that confirms everything you hoped to be true. You’ve worked hard, others noticed, and things look optimistic.

But the label isn’t “exceeds expectations”, instead it’s “meets expectations”.

This is a difficult pill to swallow for the one who identifies as someone who strives to always “exceed expectations”. Expectations are merely what quality is. And quality is meeting the spec. And that isn’t radically special. That is what we are trained to do. Exceeding is going beyond the spec. Delivering value that is greater than spec.

The feedback remains the same but the label is what stains its delivery. This staining comes from the ego.

Don’t allow your identity to be fragile enough that a label on performance impacts your vision, clarity, and purpose. Don’t permit your ego to get in the way. Use it as fuel and a reminder that there is always something more you can do. There is always someone going beyond what you do. And the goal shouldn’t be #1 overall, it should be #1 of self.